Speech production simulated with a functional model of the larynx and the vocal tract

Abstract

A composite model of speech production has been used to try to match the articulatory, aerodynamic and acoustic patterns for some real speakers of British English. The aim is to characterize particular speakers or speaker types acoustically through a match to their individual articulatory actions. In the model, the larynx contributes two independent articulatory actions; in addition it generates the acoustic source for voicing. The problems of direct matching of acoustic patterns are very great. The particular advantage of the analysis-by-synthesis methods described here is that the aerodynamic stage, which links actions to sounds, is included. As a result, the articulatory match can be made with some confidence before acoustic source and filter properties are varied; acoustic sources and acoustic pattern features of the synthetic speech co-vary in ways similar to those observed in natural speech. The model has been used to simulate disordered as well as normal larynx behaviour.